Bohemia will be releasing Arma 3 this September but it won’t include a campaign. Three free DLC packs – Survive, Adapt, and Win – will be released in the months following launch.
Arma’s beta is the cause for this delay. Management of the beta has taken up more of the developer’s time than they intended. They’ve had to make “frequent – sometimes fairly significant – changes to the base game” which has made it a “true nightmare to create, test and manage a big number of complex missions.”
“In the past, Arma has garnered something of a reputation for instability,” write Bohemia. “We’ve been single-minded in our pursuit of real improvements in this area. In the context of this development, our Showcases have proven themselves to be the most robust content to develop, publish and maintain.”
Bohemia are open about the mistakes they made in developing this Arma 3 beta: “ Arma 3 started life with a very different team and a very different scope and direction. Since 2012, we’ve seen the number of developers working on the game double, absorbing the Mníšek studio and bringing in a bunch of talented new hires in key positions across all 3 studios. And, later on in the year, we found ourselves in a position to conduct a thorough project review, which fundamentally re-evaluated the direction that the project was taking.”
Problems weren’t solely caused by the new beta, though. Development “was made no easier by some of the unpredictable events of last year. The uncertainty that was produced and the impact it’s had – on both a professional and personal level – cannot be emphasised enough. It made a tough time exponentially more difficult.”
Management of the beta absorbed a great deal of the developer’s time. Despite this “while it pushed our relatively small team’s resources further, we still fully believe in the early access release strategy, and the benefits it has wrought.”
Bohemia make clear that, while no campaign will be available at launch, the game won’t be without singleplayer content. “When the game deploys,” they write “players will be met with a set of 12 diverse Showcases and 3 Faction Showcases, 10 Challenges, 9 multiplayer scenarios across 4 unique modes. Together with a huge sandbox of weapons and vehicles, an editor to create and share custom missions, and the enormous canvases of Altis and Stratis upon which to make them.”
It’s a shame the game won’t launch with this content but if you’re set on buying Arma 3 with a campaign then you’re able to just wait till it is released. The game may have even go on sale in that time.